The Future of Virtual Reality is Coming
A Look at Who’s Leading the Way
Nancy Spiccia and Katelyn Gillum
USA TODAY NETWORK has partnered with YouTube to produce a weekly series of stories that use 360° video and virtual reality (VR) called ‘VRtually There.’ Every Thursday at 2pm ET since October 20, 2016, they’ve released a new episode of three original VR segments that can be viewed on either the USA TODAY app or their YouTube page. The three weekly stories include one “just for the thrill of it,” one “epic adventure” and one “dream destination.”
The VR stories can be watched using a variety of options that include:
- Desktop — navigation is possible in any direction using your mouse and arrow keys.
- Smartphone — download the USA TODAY app then navigate using your finger or by moving to phone to use gyroscopic controls.
- Smartphone + cardboard — provides an easy and inexpensive way to experience VR.
- Smartphone + headset — offers the most immersive storytelling experience but more expensive option. Must purchase Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive or other premium VR device.
‘VRtually There’ was the first branded news experience created in partnership with YouTube and their premiere launch sponsor, Toyota. The network is committed to creating innovative ways to engage its digital audience of 110 million people per month.
A popular segment produced by ‘VRtually There’ is the “Cool VR Walk on the Moon with NASA.” In this particular segment published on November 10, 2016, twenty-five photos were stitched together to create an outstanding panorama that allows viewers to feel as though they are on the surface of the moon.
Cool VR Walk on the Moon with NASA
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OTl86BkPTs
These photos were captured over 40 years ago when American astronauts Eugene Ceran and Jack Schmitt took hundreds of detailed photos of the moon’s surface. Last year, Project Apollo Archive made over 8,400 photos available, which allowed USA Today to partner with NASA to create the breathtaking scene.
Not only is this particular piece visually stunning, but it also provides original video footage from Eugene Ceran and Jack Schmitt during their walk on the moon in 1972. As you’re taking in the views from the surface of the moon, you can relive Ceran and Schmitt’s experience in a more realistic and immersive way than ever before. The excitement in their voices combined with the visuals of the moon make you feel as though you’re living the experience with them.
“As we leave the moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God-willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.” -Eugene Cernan
We reached out on Twitter to Pat Shannahan, the Senior Producer for News Innovation at the USA Today Network and asked him about the most challenging aspect of this particular VR segment:
To date, the video has had 209,289 views on YouTube with 223 likes, 43 dislikes, and 15 comments with mixed reactions that appear to reflect both the audience’s expectations in addition to the limitations of VR.
It is clear from the comments that some viewers do not understand the difference between VR and 360. In addition to a lack of knowledge regarding this new medium, many people are viewing the videos in 360 and not VR.
In fact, USA TODAY talks about ‘VRtually There’ on their website and states that many people watch 360° without using a viewer. Niko Chauls, Director of Emerging Technology for Gannett, the parent company of USA TODAY, says in the article that this is cool, but when it’s watched with a VR viewer “it’s a mind blowing, dazzling experience.”
This piqued our curiosity and we decided to reach out to Chauls to see if he would chat with us about the project. He graciously accepted, and here are some highlights from our conversation:
Question: What percentage of your audience uses a viewer to watch VR and how many watch as 360 on YouTube?
Chauls: We know that the vast majority of people watch ‘VRtually There’ and any VR content in 360 rather than VR simply because of availability and understanding of what VR is — because the vast majority of the media audience still doesn’t really know. They might of heard the words [VR] but they don’t know what it means or what it is. Of the people who have heard of it, there’s an even smaller segment that understands or believes it to be a new medium, as we do, as opposed to a technology or a product. It really is a new medium and it needs to be thought of that way.
Part of our reason to committing to this space and to a weekly cadence for ‘VRtually There’ is because we wanted to build the expectation of there being regular content of a high level of quality that you can come back to and consume on an ongoing basis. That in of itself will drive adoption of the medium.
So we knew when we launched that the numbers would be very much skewed towards the 360 consumer, but we are using that as a transition step to get people into VR. So we’re less concerned about the total numbers of one versus the other, but rather the conversion rate and the trajectory of VR content consumers. Because we, like every other content creator out there share responsibility to cultivate and grow a VR content audience.
Question: It sounds like you’re on the cutting edge and pioneers in VR. Is USA TODAY the first to do the type of thing you’re doing?
Chauls: I believe so. I don’t think any other news organization has committed to anything like a weekly cadence or more.
Question: What has surprised you the most so far?
Chauls: I think what probably surprised me the most is how eager everybody involved was to make this happen once they understood what the undertaking was and they came to believe (as I mentioned earlier) that VR is a medium. Once that bit of understanding clicked in and we sort of showed everybody how we were going to be able to produce the weekly experience, everybody wants to be a part of it. The excitement of pioneering a new medium is a unique experience. It’s certainly the first one in my lifetime — I don’t know if there will be others, but how often does a new medium come along and present itself as an opportunity to you?
Question: What is your favorite segment produced so far?
Chauls: That’s actually a tough one because they evoke different emotions and feelings. One of the ones that I particularly enjoyed was a starry night looking up at the night sky somewhere in the midwest. I don’t actually remember where it was bc we’re too many episodes in for me to keep track of every segment of every episode. But it was a hi-res capture of the night sky someplace where the atmosphere is thin and there aren’t many lights around- it was beautiful. And that sense of presence was powerful. There are times when storytelling is the core of what we do, and then this was sort of a VR postcard — just be there, enjoy the moment and zen out a little bit. It was a nice counterpoint to some of the meatier, heavier stories that we’ve covered.
Question: Have you run into any ethical questions in your planning, developing, producing or distribution of anything?
Chauls: We certainly have, and I guess what I would say is — I know that there is a lot of talk about ethics in VR, as there should be. I think that’s correct. But I don’t think VR and ethical considerations are really all that different from the conversations and the issues that we grapple with in all other media in dealing with ethics. And as a news organization that’s been around a long time and has all these sort of processes in place, it wasn’t really that big of a shift. I think ethics is probably a bigger consideration for an individual or small company that doesn’t have the rigor and values and due diligence that is in place at a news organization.
There are some new things here and there, but I think they’re fleeting. For example, we started producing VR content about two years ago, and when we started shooting, nobody knew that the equipment we were using were cameras. They looked at the arrays, they looked at the rigs we were using and thought that they were — I don’t know what they thought they were — but they didn’t think it was a camera. And so there wasn’t that implicit understanding of — if I point a DSLR at you, you know I’m taking your picture. If I put a 360 rig in a room, nobody knows what it is. So, the idea of asking for permission when appropriate, what not, was certainly a consideration.
Facebook and Oculus
At the Oculus Connect conference in October, 2016, Oculus, the VR company purchased in 2014 for a cool $2 billion by Facebook, announced that they will be collaborating with Disney to produce VR content before the end of the year. They also plan to create VR experiences with Alcon Interactive around the film Blade Runner 2040 when it premieres in 2017.
Although still in the infancy stage, Avatars were unveiled that will enable Oculus users to create personal identities and share a VR virtual space within a group. The Avatars are capable of human expression.
Zuckerberg plans to integrate Oculus with the rest of Facebook’s platform. During the conference, he demonstrated their VR chat features. The experience can make you feel like you’re in a room with other family members who are not actually there.
View the video here:
While VR has been used primarily in the gaming industry, it now offers exciting opportunities for producing content in many arenas, including entertainment and advertising. Both Facebook and Oculus have committed to invest $250 million into VR to accelerate its development.
As we’re seeing a growing trend with more news organizations incorporating VR as a medium, Chauls reminds us that it’s still all new and everyone is trying to figure it out. He said we should all be wary of anybody who says they know what they’re doing and claims to be an expert at this stage of the game.
Seeing VR as a medium means it likely will play an important role in our lives, and sooner than we may imagine. While it may not be the time to run out and buy a VR headset, it’s definitely something we should all be watching.
As Mark Zuckerburg said, “Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the internet was also once a dream, and so were computers and smartphones. The future is coming.”
